CHAPTER THIRTEEN: Ice Cream with Sugar on Top

"Where am I going?" Inuyasha asked as they were stopped at a red light.

"You mean you don't know?" Kagome asked with a giggle.

"How long have I lived here, Kagome?" Inuyasha replied impatiently. "I didn't even know where the University was until Sessho-maru gave me instructions this morning and I got there. He was going to drive me, but I didn't want to be babysat. –That's beside the point. Which way is it?"

"Well, it was a couple streets back there. Turn right up at the next red light and after we've done that I'll tell you what to do next," Kagome replied.

"You better be right," Inuyasha said, getting into the turning lane as they approached the next red light.

--

"I could've sworn it was somewhere around here…" Kagome muttered. "Maybe you turn there—"

"Are you just guessing?"

"Kind of," Kagome admitted. "But this part of town has changed a lot since I was last here…"

Inuyasha sighed. "Great. We're lost."

"No! I know where we are, I just don't know where we are in relation to Baskin Robbins," Kagome replied defensively. "Take a left."

"Is that the right way?"

"How should I know?"

"I'm glad you're not a cartographer," Inuyasha said.

"What do you mean? Don't you mean you wish I was?"

Inuyasha smirked. He replied, "Oh, that's right, I do, because if you were, you just might KNOW WHERE WE'RE GOING!"

"Ha, ha, very funny," Kagome said dryly. "Wait! Why are you going right?"

"Because you said to go left," Inuyasha replied smugly.

"Then turn left again."

He did.

"NO! You were supposed to turn right, thinking I wanted to go left!" Kagome wailed.

"Ah, but you see, I know when you're scheming something," Inuyasha said. Then he looked up at a sign and said suddenly, "But what is this!"

Kagome looked, and there was Baskin Robbins.

"How long have you lived here, Kagome?" Inuyasha asked smugly.

"Aw, shut up," Kagome groaned.

--

Kagome swirled her milkshake around and around and around with her straw.

"Doesn't your mother ever tell you not to play with your food?" Inuyasha asked.

"Doesn't yours?" Kagome said, giggling at the ice cream mountain Inuyasha had been sculpting. Then she suddenly remembered… His mother can't tell him. She's dead. "I'm sorry," she said quickly. "I didn't mean—"

"'S okay," Inuyasha said with a little shrug.

"And… I'm sorry about what I said about Kikyo," Kagome said. "Not just that she was famous, but everything. She seems like a very nice person—I know I couldn't stay mad at her for long."

"That was years ago… Besides, she's too old for me anyway," Inuyasha muttered.

"So you did have a crush on her! Aww, that's so sweet," Kagome squealed.

Inuyasha made a face. "'So sweet'?" he repeated.

"I can just see you as a little freshman, asking her for help and blushing…" Kagome giggled.

"HEY, wha'do YOU know?" Inuyasha blustered suddenly, turning red.

Kagome just shook her head, sighed, and giggled.

"And what, exactly, is that supposed to mean?"

Kagome took a large gulp of milkshake to avoid having to answer.

"…You're right," Inuyasha admitted finally. "I liked her. I almost asked her to a dance once, but she already had someone to go with. Some other guy on the drumline. She was really nice, and she was really patient with freshmen unlike all the other guys, who sometimes bullied us. I'm sure you know what that's like."

"Yeah, I do. Especially last year," Kagome replied.

"I was being sarcastic," Inuyasha said flatly.

"Well, I wasn't."

"Really?"

"Yeah. The seniors last year and this year still sometimes mess around with me. The problem is that I believe too much, and they know exactly how to get me. Once I trust someone, I go on trusting them. I started out trusting most of those guys, so nowadays whenever they trick me or something I'm shocked. And I hate it." Kagome swirled her milkshake with her straw some more. "I hate the way they make me feel so stupid. And that I ever believed them in the first place."

"I never woulda thought you were bullied," Inuyasha said. "I mean, you, of all people. You're, like, one of the best percussionists we have at the high school, and you're nice to them most of the time. And three or four of them have crushes on you."

"How can you keep saying that?" Kagome said somewhat angrily. "They call me 'cute' and 'hot' and stuff just to see if I'll believe it. And they all hate me because I'm better than them!"

Defensively, Inuyasha said suddenly, "In case you haven't noticed, I don't hate you."

Kagome paused a minute to stare at Inuyasha. "I know that," she said quietly. "And I don't hate you either."

They were quiet as they stared at each other, but soon Kagome got nervous and looked back into her milkshake.

"You've said Mr. Naraku is prejudiced?" Inuyasha said, thinking up something else to talk about.

"Well, isn't it obvious? He's always zeroing in on you."

"Maybe he's just perverted or sexist," Inuyasha shrugged, "since he never gets mad at you and always gets onto me."

"Then what do you have to say about him kicking me off the drumline?" Kagome replied. "No, he's definitely a racist. A few people to my right, Jeff and Taylor were swordfighting with their sticks, and he didn't give them a second thought. Whereas you simply pointed a stick at me. The next thing you know, he was all over you."

"Does he just hate dogs? Because, I mean, Koga's a wolf, and he was right there when we argued, and Mr. Naraku didn't give him a second glance."

"Koga is a lapdog. He won't break any rules and sucks up to all the teachers," Kagome said. "And he's the most boring person on the face of the planet, though that's beside the point."

"…What do you plan to do about Mr. Naraku? You seem so against him, but he's the assistant principal! What could you possibly do to him?" Inuyasha asked.

"Collect evidence?..." Kagome said tentatively. "I don't have any particular plan yet, but I know I've got to do something."

"Why? Because he kicked you off the drumline?"

"Not only that, but for… for everyone like you. It's so unfair and stupid."

"What's unfair and stupid? The fact that we've been created?" Inuyasha sounded defensive.

"No! –Racism. We simple human beings have lived always believing we were superior to all creatures on earth. And then all the genetically engineered human/animal mixes came along, and you were—depending on the animal—smarter, stronger, and faster than us. We couldn't accept that maybe we weren't the best, so people started saying bad things and refusing to allow genetically altered beings to go certain places. It was like… like before Martin Luther King, Jr., came along and ended racism towards African-Americans. And it's awful," Kagome realized she sounded like she was preaching and took a large gulp of milkshake to dispel the silence.

"What do you think about the whole genetic engineering thing?" Inuyasha asked.

"It's sad that we had to be the ones to do it," Kagome said, "since it makes us believe we have authority over you. If anything, you're superior, but at least—at bare minimum you should be treated as equal."

"My grandmother hated it," Inuyasha said suddenly. "She was outraged at the thought that her son would be genetically altered before he was born. But she loved my grandfather, and it was what he wanted. I never met them, but Dad used to tell me the story all the time." He looked somewhere far off, into the past, and remembered aloud, "He had been treated awfully. Then he met Sessho-maru's mother, and they got married, just to share the pain and loneliness of being different. But he didn't love her. Even after Sessho-maru was born, he still couldn't bring himself to love her. They got divorced. Then… he met someone special. Someone who loved him unconditionally. Someone who didn't care who… what… he was, even though she wasn't like him." Inuyasha looked down at his ice cream contemplatively, then back at Kagome. "Someone like you," he whispered shyly.

Kagome smiled softly at him.

Soon they became a little embarrassed, staring into each other's eyes, and looked away quickly. "What time is it?" Kagome asked lightly.

"Uh… the percussion clinic still has about an hour," Inuyasha said, furrowing his eyebrows at his watch.

Kagome sighed. "So, what do you want to do?"

"I don't know; what do you want to do?"

"I don't know; what… what movie is that from?" Kagome asked as she got up to throw away her milkshake cup. She got Inuyasha's empty ice cream cup on the way.

"Hm… something Disney and animated."

"I know. But there's too many of those…" Kagome said, and they laughed nervously. Silently they climbed into the car, and Inuyasha drove in the general direction of somewhere else.

"Where should we go?" Inuyasha asked once more.

"The Jungle Book! That's it!" Kagome exclaimed.

"Were you even listening?"

"What?" Kagome pretended she hadn't heard a word. "Did you say something?" Then she laughed and replied, "I don't know."

Inuyasha looked at his watch again. "I have to pick up Rin again today. And since I don't have anything else to do, I might as well go get her and save us some money. That all right with you?"

"Sure," Kagome shrugged. "Rin's hilarious."

"She's something," Inuyasha grumbled. Kagome laughed.

--

Inuyasha pulled into the driveway of Kagome's house.

"Thanks Inuyasha," Kagome said, gathering up her stick bag and purse. "Well, see you… in band on Monday. If we even go to band…" She reached over to open her door.

"Hey, Kagome?" Inuyasha reached over and caught her left hand with his right in case she thought she was leaving.

"Hm?" she turned back around.

"Everything will turn out all right—I promise. You'll see," Inuyasha reassured her.

"Thanks," Kagome said with a relieved smile. Then, without thinking about it, she leaned over and kissed him on the cheek. His hand released hers abruptly as he stared in shock.

Kagome grinned. "Bye."

"Bye Eggy!" Rin called as Kagome closed the door. She headed to the front door and smiled to herself. He wasn't so bad, Inuyasha. He was really very sweet.